Instructions in Reality

Adam is definitely too young to have watched Scooby Doo. But the damage is done now and we haven't decided whether or not he can watch Scooby Doo again. Here is how he started watching Scooby Doo. We bought some Scooby Doo movies for the three older children for long car rides. At the time Adam did not watch TV at all. But apparently seeing and listening to Scooby Doo in the car speeded that along. I, of course felt relieved when Adam at 2 years and 8 months decided to sit still long enough to watch a movie. He had not watched more than 10 minutes at a time before then, and I was already quite pregnant and in need of naps. Until Adam would watch TV he would not let me take a nap unless he was taking a nap too. Well at first Adam would only watch Bob the Builder. All of the older kids hated Bob the builder so that wasn't great but it gave me a half hour a day. Then after our September temple trip (a long drive with all of our kids) Adam began watching Scooby Doo and only Scooby Doo. He would no longer watch Bob the Builder. That was fine because now the older kids were willing to watch what Adam would watch and I could get a two hour nap. Life was good. I thought that Adam was a little young for the contents in Scooby Doo, but being very pregnant I convinced myself that Adam would be fine and didn't worry about later consequences. Well we started facing the later consequences after Christmas. Adam began waking up at night screaming and crying from nightmares. We thought it was probably due to too much Scooby Doo and cut down his TV time. But at that point we had a brand new baby and I was lucky if I got 4 hours of sleep total. I think two to three hours of sleep was more typical right after the baby was born. So Adam pretty much right away watched too much Scooby Doo and after about a month he seemed to be able to deal with the nightmares on his own. Once the baby was sleeping through the night I mostly quit taking naps and Adam has not watched nearly so much TV and much less Scooby Doo. But now we have found another consequence to letting Adam watch Scooby Doo too young. Adam believes monsters are real. The other night when I was tucking Adam into bed, I found him lying on the very edge of the bed. I moved him over and said, "You shouldn't sleep so close to the edge of your bed because you may fall out and hit your head and that would hurt." To my surprise Adam pointed to the wall side of his bed and said, "I can't there is a monster right there." Well, I felt VERY concerned but instead I laughed and said, "Oh, Adam monsters aren't real. There is not a monster on your bed and you will be safe." Adam said, "But monsters are real on my Scooby Doo." I told him that monsters were not real here so it was okay. Adam seemed comforted so I left and he went to sleep. This morning Adam came to me and said, "I can't go downstairs there is a monster downstairs with Kate." (Kate was sick and sleeping down stairs). I remembered our conversation the other night so instead of assigning Adam the chore of monster extermination I told him that monsters are not real. Again Adam informed me that monsters are real on his Scooby Doo. I told Adam that Scooby Doo was not real. I told him that cartoons are all pretend, and all imaginary. Adam seemed rather disappointed, and then he said, "Scooby Doo is a dog. Dogs are real. Scooby Doo is real." I said, "Dogs are real but Scooby Doo is not a real dog. He is a cartoon dog and cartoons are all pretend." Ruth them responded, "That is right Adam. Scooby Doo talks and nobody taught him how to talk. In real life you have to teach dogs to talk if you want them to talk."

Bad Guy

We had finally all sat down and were ready to eat. We just needed to say the prayer. Adam started waving both of his arms high above his head and back and forth so fast that the table was shaking a bit. Then he started yelling, "Can my say the prayer?!" over and over again. John was not paying attention to Adam and had no idea what he was saying or why he was making noise. John said, "Johnny can you bless the food." Adam then waved his fist around and in a roaring voice said, "Oh, Bad Guy!"

SOME SMILES

THE BEST FROWN EVER

Nothing is Worse Than...

Johnny is reading a great kids book called FRANNY K. STEIN. Today while he was reading Franny said, "Nothing is worse than being laughed at." Johnny said, "Mom I don't think that is true. Do you?" I said, "Yes, I don't think that is true." Then Johnny said, "What is really true is nothing is worse than being punished." I thought that was pretty funny. Kids are awesome.

Cute

John was digging through our little junk-cabinet a bunch today. Adam found a flashlight in it at one point and asked if he could play with it. john said that he could. Later today John opened the cabinet and Adam peeked in pointed at the flashlight and asked, "Is this a flashlight that doesn't light because it needs new batteries?"

Wishful Thinking

Gramma Pardon decided that turning ten is a big deal and bought Ruth a Nintendo DS for making it to the "double-digit-midget milestone" of life. Tonight Ruth was talking about turning ten and the things that her DS can do. John said, "In 6 years your birthday will be a much bigger deal because that is when you can start dating. Well, that is when you can start going on group dates." Ruth said, "I saw a girl with three boys in the store. Is that what you mean by 'group date'?"

Short Story Day and the Results

For spring break fun and education I told Ruth and Kate that we were all going to write a short story in the afternoon. Much to my surprise and pleasure Ruth, Kate, and Johnny wrote stories, and Adam even told us a story. So here are the results.

KATE'S STORY

Two Funny Tales: 1. I'm Not Short Compared to a Fairy

Ha! I'm Kate. I'm in third grade, but there is one problem with me. I am SMALL! But there is one good thing about my bad thing. I'M NOT SMALLER THAN A FAIRY! So whenever I am teased I remember I'M NOT SHORT COMPARED TO A FAIRY!

2. Lemonade in Winter

Ha! I'm Kate. I want spring to come, so I got an idea. I set up a lemonade stand. 25cents a cup. WHAT..............NO ONE'S COMING??? It's still winter?? I Guess I will have to wait until spring.

ADAM'S STORY

There was a monster in my bedroom. When I woke up it was there. It had creepy claws. It was under my bed and under Johnny's bed too. When I ran from him he went on the bookshelf. That made him disappear. When I came back he was gone. He was missing. He had creepy claws on his feet too.

RUTH'S STORY

Tina the Naughty Fairy: When Tina became Nice

Once upon a time there lived a fairy named Tina. Tina was a naughty fairy ever since her parents died. She was very lonely. Everyone at Fairy School hated her. One thing she didn't know was her luck was about to change. When a new girl came to school Tina started to tease her, but she stood up for herself. So Tina became very curious about the new girl. The new girl said her name was Terry. From Terry, Tina learned to stand up for your self. A trick is to ignore them. Tina learned a great deal from Terry. An important thing she learned was always stand up for your self even when things are hard. They became the best of friends. But one day Terry was moving to Utah. Utah was very far from Africa. What was Tina going to do when Terry left? Finally, it was moving day. Tina and Terry were very sad. It was a dark day for Tina. Six days later something wonderful happened. Tina was bored listening to her fairy school teacher.

"Class," said the teacher, "We have a new classmate." Tina peered at the teacher.

"Say hello to your new classmate, Tetra," the teacher said. Tina had a new friend. Now Tetra and Tina became good friends. They both looked out for each other just like Terry and Tina. And they lived happily ever after. The End.

JOHNNY'S STORY

The Legend of the Hero

Once upon a time there was a little town. One day a monster of great evil came. A hero came and fought the monster of great evil. The hero killed the monster of great evil. But one day a man of great evil came. But a hero appeared and destroyed the man of great evil. The end.

A Place For Everything

We painted my bedroom yesterday (YAHOO!!!) Normally we keep the Game Cube in my bedroom, but we moved it into the living room for the night. This morning John found the games to the Game Cube lying on the living room floor. This is dangerous in our house because Rachel loves discs and seems to watch for a chance to get DVD's , CD's, and Game discs. Of course when she gets them they get dirty and scratched so we attempt to keep them out of her reach. After church today Johnny said, "I can't find the games we like. They are not where I put them." John said, "I found them on the floor." Johnny replied, "That's the best I could do."

Experiment

As usual we were late and rushing to get Ruth and Kate ready for the bus on time. I had poured every one's cereals and milk. About 30 seconds later Johnny spilled his bowl of cereal all over his lap, the table, and the floor. I was VERY UNHAPPY!!!!! (Fortunately I refrained from yelling) I did however say, "Johnny why did you do that? Get into the bath IMMEDIATELY!" Johnny replied, "It was only an accident." So I said, "That may be, but it only spilled because you laid your arms on the table. Go to the bathtub and get cleaned up." Johnny looked longly at his spilled bowl of cereal that I was mopping up and then dripped milk all the way to the bathroom.

I got the mess cleaned up and the girls onto the bus. I then placed a bowl of dry cereal and a cup of milk onto the table for Johnny when he finished his bath. I did not wait for him because I did not want to forget to give him breakfast. After a while Johnny came out washed and dressed. He sat down at the table and looked forlornly at his dry bowl of cereal. He then flopped his arms on the table the same way he had earlier and spilled his dry bowl of cereal all over himself. Rather surprised he exclaimed, "Oh!!!" I informed him that this mess was his to clean up. But while Johnny did not say anything I got the impression that he was testing to see if his arms on the table was the true cause of the spill. I think he decided that they were and he has been a little (I stress the word little) more careful since then.

Rewarded

When I went to the store with my daughters and no sons I was able to talk to my girls a lot. It was nice to hear what they had to say and they were eager for my listening ear. Kate started talking about how a lot of the kids in school get to watch a lot more television than they do. Ruth agreed and said that most kids watch Cartoon Network for two hours everyday after school. (WOW!!!) Kate said that her friend Kalli gets to go home and watch TV even before she has to do her homework. I said, "Well it's too bad that you guys got stuck with this mean old mom," (I was just playing with them.) Then out of curiosity I asked if they would like to watch TV everyday after school. To my utter surprise they both said absolutely no. Then they said that I was a good mom and that they liked the way our family is. Kate even said that she does not mind doing her homework right after school. The both expressed wishes for more playtime, though.

On the way home from this same shopping trip Ruth and Kate started talking about how everyone is crazy about K-State football. They each had a lot to say about how people watch football. I then offered to watch the University of Michigan football games with them next foot ball season because that is what I watched when I was a kid and the University of Michigan is the school we have in common with many relatives. They both said no thank you. They like the way our family does things and they don't want to change it. I am just shocked at how sweet and kind Ruth and Kate were, and I am also very pleased that at the ages of 8 and 10 they do not have a serious interest in following the crowd.

Some Things

I have been a negligent mother today. Adam has a very bad cough so I have set him in front of the TV all day. The most I have done for Rachel is take her potty, give her meals, a bath, and buy her candy at the store to make up for me being too lazy to take her on a walk and read her stories. It is 7:15 and I have no idea what to do for the kids for dinner. John and I are ordering out for a date so I don't feel too rushed to feed myself. Now I am writing a blog bouncing the baby with my foot instead of holding her. After i have done this I think I will go and play Mario Cart with Ruth, Kate, and Johnny to make up for my neglect. Them I will have to spend about an hour cleaning up Rachel's mess because I have neglected her too much. I guess dinner will be around 9pm. Ain't I a good Mom!!!!

Here is what I really want to blog:
1. Rachel said, "I mum nannnie" Translation: I Love Candy; and "I wan war" Translation: I want water. What she actually meant was that she wanted to play in the rain. i think she is just darling!!!

2.While at the store Kate said to Ruth, "When I passed gas I said, 'excuse me', and that is having good manners." Ruth replied, "I farted and said, 'Pardon me' instead." Kate smiled and said, "I never say, 'Pardon me' when I fart." (I love listening on the girls conversations. They are SOOOO FUNNYYYY!!!!

Stupid, Yet Blessed

Well, this is rather embarrassing to admit, but John and I were overdrawn this last paycheck, because we had gotten out of the habit of entering our expenses and checking our account. So we were broke until today. There were a few expenditures we had to make, however. The first blessing was when I had to take Rachel and Esther to the doctors for eye infections. This usually would cost $40 in copays. When I went to pay we had a $17 credit and so the visit only cost us $23. Second, we needed hand soap. John went to Wal-mart for the hand soap. The store announced half off on some deli chicken while he was there so he decided to get some since we were low on food too. The cashier and the assistant manager could not figure out how to ring the chicken up at half price, so they gave it to him for free in exchange for his wasted time. The third blessing, happened the next day. I have been promising Johnny that I would take him and his two best friends to Pump It Up (a indoor inflatable bounce place, with slide and obstacle course) since September. Well, I finally invited his friends on Sunday, before we realized how poor we were. I thought it would be best to just go ahead and and take them since I promised 6 months ago. The cost would be $6 a child plus 4 happy meals afterwards. Well, we went. When we got there the lady informed me that Pump It Up was free that day because their computer broke down and they had no way to charge anyone. Amazing!!!!!! So a $45 outing for Johnny cost only $15. I now this was the Hand of The Lord. He certainly takes care of us even when we do very stupid things.

Rachel Talking

Rachel is talking a lot more now. Here are two funny things that she has said.

1. She saw a picture of herself on the computer and very happily said, "I daw a baby!!"

1. She picked up an old peice of sandwich not wiped off the table after lunch and said, "Yuck, dat is poop."

One more really good thing about Rachel is that she is potty trained. Rachel, in four days basically potty trained herself. She now tells us every time she needs to go to the bathroom and sometimes when she doesn't just for attention. Potty training, to my surprise, actually did work for keeping her out of the toilet. Since she started, Rachel has not played in the toilet. Congratulations to our little Rachel making her our fifth little Robertson person to enter the civilized world.

More and More Pictures

Messing around with Photos

Here are a few more pictures from our walk in the woods. I got a lot of really good pictures and I have had a lot of fun messing around with them on picassa. It is fun what you can do with pictures these days.

Our Little Explore

The sun shone and it was warm and breezy. I knew we needed to go down to the park for a picnic and a little explore. We went to walmart and got a rotisserie chicken, fresh mozzarella, orange juice, rolls, and lolly pops and headed for the "prickly park" (really known as Swansons Park, but anything with thorns that grows in Kansas is there. Thus the "Prickly Park").

This park is not a play park. It is a walking park. There are lots of dogs and dog poo, a river and some bridges. Side walks take you around about a 2 1/2 mile walk, but people, dogs, and horses have formed their own paths through the woods. Ruth, Kate, and Johnny always want to go through the woods. I never want to because I never want to push the stroller through the woods. But today I thought maybe we could take one of these paths to find an open grassy spot for our picnic. We did find a nice solitary grassy spot. The kids complained that the grass was too prickly to be good for picnicking, but I vetoed their objections based on the fact that all the grass in Kansas on March first is prickly and we would not find a soft spot that was dry. Thus we took off our jackets, sat down in the dead grass and enjoyed a meal in the beautiful sunshine. After cleaning up all of our trash and all of our hands and faces we began our explore. Because the woodsy path we were at seemed open and wide and not too difficult to push a stroller through I gave in to the kids pleas and we began our journey through the woods. We were on the north side of the river with some smaller cliffs than the usual sidewalk (south side) of the river so the kids got to wander down and play by the water. Ruth, Kate, Johnny, Adam, and Rachel joyously climbed trees, ran through woods, and walked around the waters edge. They were having such a good time that I decided we should stay on the path. As a child, I loved the woods and was fortunate enough to always live next to woods. I explored in the woods daily until I was 11. I 'm sorry that my own children have not had that pleasure. So I decided to stay on the rough wooded path rather than turning around to find the paved path. At first our path was wide and well trodden. I felt certain that eventually it would lead us to the paved path. But the path got narrower, hillier, and harder to push the stroller through. The kids kept asking me if we were lost. Technically I knew we were definitely not lost and that it would be easy to retrace our steps, but when our path ended at a rusty barbed wire fence I declared that we were lost. (I really had no idea what our direction in the park was, and which way to turn to get us out. But I knew that the area was small enough that we weren't really lost.) Ruth, Kate, and Johnny exclaimed gleefully that it is scary to be lost and how they would never forget this explore. Ruth even thanked me for the memory. Well we ended up turning around and walking east. By the time we got to the barbed wire there was no clear path and it took us a while and some awkward pushing, pulling, and lifted of the stroller to get through the woods. We did find our original trail and made it back to pavement without much trouble. Kate and Johnny ran and shouted how wonderful it was not be lost when we approached the sidewalk. (I thought how wonderful it was to be pushing a large stroller on pavement rather than mud and sticks). We had a great explore. The kids were excited to come home and tell Dad about their adventure and they all talked about how we must do this again soon. It was really fun to be out in nature with my kids. We will definitely go exploring again. But next time-- No Stroller!!

Rachel Sets the Table

Rachel set the table one night while we were preparing dinner. Since silverware is all she has access too that is what she set. Rachel also neglected to clear the dirty plates and wash the table, but hey, Thanks for your help Rachel. We love you.

I Did It

Well, I finally did it. I bought a kid leash for Rachel. We went to the Temple on Friday and after the second time Rachel ran as fast as she could out into parking lots with moving cars I decided that it was better to have a healthy living dog girl than a maimed or dead daughter. In fact, I think Rachel truly would have been hit if it was not for Ruth's watchful eye. We have often called Ruth our Shepard because she has always watched over the younger children.
Now about the leash. I never really needed them with Ruth, Kate, and Johnny. Kate ran away like Rachel does, but with only three kids, it wasn't so hard to keep a watch over her. Adam never needed anything like that because he has always stayed very close to me, both at home and in public. But Rachel I have often called "Runaway Sal" because she has run away as soon as she could walk. Now that I have the baby plus four other children and Rachel it has just been too much. My hands are full. So I broke down and bought the kid leash. It is actually a cute little monkey and the tale is the leash. Rachel seems to like it okay. All the other kids like to walk Rachel. But we have had the problem of them just dragging Rachel and pulling her over. Anyway, it is done. I swore I would never use one. But actually, I really quite appreciate it. Rachel has been much safer since I bought this two days ago. Plus it works fine to leave it on her while she is in her car seat. That is really good since parking lots seem to be our biggest problem.